Horse Talk

Juniors braved the icy cold for their Gymkhana. Picture: SUPPLIED

By Anita Prowse

Upper Yarra Pony Club’s Beginners Gymkhana was held on Sunday.

Despite freezing, icy strong winds, participants all had big smiles and enjoyed all the classes, a handy mount course and individual bending poles and ride and lead races.

Pony Club holds this event annually as it’s very important to give the youngest and newest members an opportunity to compete in low-key

settings and learn things like ‘ringcraft’ and proper etiquette in a competitive setting.

The handy mount course consists of skill-based tasks, such as gate opening and closing, dismounting and remounting, small jump, poles and posting a letter.

The Fancy Dress class is of course also a favourite, with some great costumes on both horse and rider. UYPC look forward to next year’s event.

Next up for UYPC in the way of events, is the Saturday Freshman’s Showjumping Series beginning on Saturday 9 September, tickets for rounds can be purchased on the day, all enquiries to anita.horses@gmail.com

Can you guess which day of the year is an equestrian’s favourite day? The shortest day! Thankfully it arrived last week, so now the moulting begins and of course, fingers crossed for some warmer days and less mud.

Happy Riding.